As much as I love slipping away for a full hour of yoga by myself, sometimes I have to squeeze a little yoga practice in at home with the kids. These are the poses that any beginner can try, that kids can follow along with if they want, and for the most part, leaves your eyes and ears available to keep an eye on your little darlings wherever you are practicing. You can mix the sequence up, and start and stop again if you have to attend to a mom duty. I broke the sequence into small sections so if you have a few minutes to try it, you can do just that. Part 2 will be a few more poses that you can try later in the week!

You can expect this whole sequence below to take about 20 minutes with some minor child distractions.

Spend as much time as you like in a particular pose, but shoot for three breaths and see how it feels. You know that great feeling you get when you wake up from a good night’s sleep and stretch in bed? That’s the terrific stretching feeling you are going for. Yoga should feel awesome.

For those who are unfamiliar with yoga, fear not. You don’t have to be flexible, strong, fit, or wearing yoga pants to get started. The idea is that as you are stretching and placing your body into these somewhat foreign positions, you try to focus on breathing (so you don’t forget to breathe!) and thus forget those three loads of laundry to fold. For me, yoga slows down the pace of motherhood and working womanhood significantly. There’s oodles of research that all says the same thing: Yoga is good for you.

Here’s the sequence:

Arms Up: Inhale your arms overhead and if it feels good, touch your fingertips together. Lean over to the right, even just a little ways, and imagine filling the left lung up with air, stretching the muscles along your side. Try it again on the other side.

Eagle Arms: Inhale your arms out to your side (perhaps cueing kids to make “airplane arms”) and bring them in front of you with the right arm underneath the left. Bend both arms at the elbows so your fingertips are pointing to the sky, and twist your arms up so that your right fingers are touching the inside of your left arm, wrist or palm. Let your shoulders relax down and away from your ears and maybe move your elbows up and down a bit to see if there’s a sweet spot in between your shoulder blades that needs a little love. This is a great pose for those holding heavy babies or after long hours at a desk. Unwind your arms, and try it on the other side, with the left arm underneath this time.

Swan Dive: Extend your arms out, like an airplane or a bird, bend your knees, and hinging at the hips, fold forward. Your knees don’t need to be straight as you hang forward. Focus on the divine feeling of stretch at the back of the legs, and clasp hold of your elbows if you’d like. Plant the hands and sink down to all fours.

Cat & Cow: On all fours, push the mat away from you and push your spine up to the sky, much like a cat does. You can spend a whole breath or more in cat pose. Then, for cow pose, tip your pelvis forward and let your tummy sag like a hammock. Take your eyes to the sky and look up a bit with your chin. You can move in a fluid fashion from cat to cow and back again as many times as you like.

Child’s Pose: From all fours, sink down with either your knees together or wide apart. Extend your arms out, reaching actively with your fingers. After a few breaths here, walk your fingers over to the right, and then the left, and then back to center. This is the only pose that leaves you with your eyes to the ground rather than on the kids that may or may not be nearby, so don’t forget to peek up.

Downward Dog: From all fours, check to see that your hands are planted shoulder width apart and your knees are under your hips. Curl your toes under and push up. Imagine pushing the ground away from you and drawing your hips up and back. Draw your shoulders away from your ears. Perhaps bicycle your legs a bit. Marvel at how flexible children are as they do this pose, and every pose with almost no effort.

Three legged Dog: From downward dog, take your right leg up to the sky. Bend the right knee and let your right heel come closer to your left hip. You should feel a great stretch all along your right side. Slowly bring your foot back down to the ground. Extend the left leg to the sky repeat. End in downward dog.

*Here is a good time for a rest, some water, or child’s pose to give your arms a break.

Plank: From downward dog, come down into a push-up position known as plank. Draw your shoulders down and away from your ears and drive your weight through your heels. Bring your knees to the ground if you feel wobbly. Engage your abdominal muscles for stability.

Crocodile: From plank, sink down into the bottom half of a push up, known as crocodile. As your upper body strength increases, you will be able to spend more time in crocodile. It is okay if you can spend just a millisecond in crocodile. Next time shoot for two milliseconds. You can rest your lower body on the ground as soon as you need to.

Cobra: From crocodile, place your hands beneath your shoulders. Bring your ankles and big toes together and make your legs active and press into the ground. Engage your back muscles at the same time so your upper body comes up off the ground. Test yourself and see if you can keep your upper body up off the ground and lift your hands up a bit. You can expand on this pose by gently lifting your upper body up higher by pressing your hands into the ground and lifting higher still.

Downward Dog and transition to standing: From cobra, you can either come to all fours and then into downward dog or push straight into downward dog from cobra. Spend as much time here as you’d like. Walk your feet toward your hands, bend the knees, extend arms out like an airplane, and slowly come to standing, bringing your ankles and big toes together.

*Here is a great place to stop if you need to, or you can just continue on to the next pose in my next post!

Share in the comments below if you think you can squeeze a little yoga into your busy day, Wildflowers! If so, which poses did you enjoy the most?

When I started teaching yoga it was the first time in my life I was on a genuinely regular schedule of exercise outside the home. It was also at a time when I was working at two different schools in two towns and my yoga class was in a different town altogether, and I had two small children. To say I was a bit scattered is an understatement. By divine intervention and a vanity-driven fear of not having the right thing to wear, I came up with a good system for always having yoga clothes.

On Sunday night (or maybe Saturday, or maybe Monday-I’m a work in progress) I get out the totes, bags, and sacks I have collected, sewn, or otherwise acquired and I put them to good use. I have 2 classes a week, so I grab 3 bags (one for an extra). I put one outfit in each bag after I have checked the weather. I try to gather items by type, from the ground up, so I set out 3 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of yoga leggings, 3 sports bras and 3 tanks. I put a hair tie on each pile (provided I can rustle up 3 of the mysterious creatures) and if I get that far, high five to me. If the house is still standing at this point I might make my outfits match, which earns a high five and a low five- I’m on organization fire!

If I have an extra minute I check the toiletry bag that I put in the tote bag I will use earliest in the week and replace cotton swabs, deodorant, bobby pins, etc. You could have a toiletry bag for each tote and make their contents fit your needs of course, but yoga isn’t too sweaty of an activity so I don’t need much in mine. By using a toiletry bag for the little things you might need to freshen up, you keep the small items corralled nicely. The toiletry bag can be transferred at the same time you might transfer your shoes if you are, say, a runner. Once you form the habit, it will become automatic.

The MOST IMPORTANT STEP: Put the bags in the car. Or by the front door, or wherever you will surely remember them. But really, if it is possible, walk them out to the car. This step has been crucial for me. Put them in the car. Then you are ready to rock the workweek!

Whatever your system is, dear readers, please share below! How do you avoid having to skip exercise because of forgotten gear?

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